Trial of Zakkart
The true entrance to the Trial of Zakkart was a dome-shaped room right past the entrance with the outside it is a large, unrefined, sturdy-looking, rectangular entrance that looked as if it was made of steel. Next to it was a wooden sign that looked like a door plate, reading: ‘The Trial of Zakkart.’ Written words and the holy symbols of the eleven great gods of the world were etched on its walls. Offer your prayers to the god who chose the true champion. For the people inside the Boundary Mountain Range, who knew that this Dungeon had been built by Gufadgarn, the evil god of labyrinths who called himself Zakkart’s first disciple, this was an obvious trap. But in the human societies outside the Boundary Mountain Range, Zakkart was considered a ‘fallen champion,’ one of the parents of the evil Vampire race. He deserved fear more than respect. None would think of him when they saw the words ‘true champion.’ Features and Layout Starting Surface * dome-shaped room Level of difficulty * The Levels very in Difficulties They are meant to test various challenges with dire consequences when not Done properly * Floor Areas Layout * harsh Elemental environment * ocean floor with countless whirlpools * precipitous mountain range floor * Test of knowledge * Personal challenges Riddles or puzzles *Languages representing English and German can be found on some walls Accounts from previous challengers According to the previous challengers of the Trial of Zakkart, like the Majin king Godwin and the Dark Elf king Gizan, the floors of the Dungeon could generally be divided into three categories. Firstly, the first to the thirty-fifth shallowest floors were riddle floors. They encouraged challengers to display acts like those of Zakkart and the other creation-oriented champions, and imposed deadly penalties upon those who acted like Bellwood and the other combat-oriented champions. From the thirty-sixth to the seventy-second floors in the middle, including the desert floor that Vandalieu’s party had cleared to level, there were no more visible riddles that needed solving. Each floor had a different internal layout and presented a harsh environment, and they required battles against monsters that were adapted to these environments. The ability to survive through these was tested. * The 68th floor’s trial. The challengers would split into two groups and each encounter a chamber with a Rank 13 Orichalcum Devil Statue, a Golem in the form of a Demon. The two Orichalcum Golems had to be defeated within ten seconds of each other, in other words almost simultaneously. If the challengers failed to do this, the Orichalcum Golems would regenerate endlessly. It was thought that this was a trial based on one of the powers that Solder was given by Peria, the goddess of water and knowledge. This ability was one that allowed her to unify and share her consciousness, knowledge and experiences with those of her companions. According to records in Vida’s Resting Grounds, this ability not only allowed Solder to share her knowledge and experience to help with technological development, but also helped her command her allies in battle. Of course, even without the same ability as Solder… if the challengers were able to defeat the Orichalcum Devil Statues in both rooms over and over, their timings would eventually line up and they would be able to pass through the trial. * The trial on the next floor, the 69th, was one that tested the challengers’ mental strength. The entirety of its wall, floor and ceiling surface was covered in decorations that induced hallucinations of the mind and twisted the challengers’ sense of direction. The challengers would hear a harsh, echoing noise that caused fear and irritation, and even the air was filled with a tormenting scent. And the entire floor was built like a labyrinth, with mindless Golems blocking the challengers’ path. This was likely a trial based on one of the abilities given to Ark by Ricklent, the genie of time and magic. It was the ability that rendered her immune to any external effects on her mind, including those caused by illusions and poison. Even without possessing the same ability as Ark, it was possible to clear this trial with mental resistance Skills and Magic Items. * The trial of the 70th floor was an arts-and-crafts trial. When the party entered the room, an image was projected, presumably through light-attribute magic. The image depicted a person who appeared to be a craftsman using creation-related Skills to carve a statue, make a clay jar and repair a pot with a hole in it. Challengers had to carry each of these tasks out in a separate room with the materials provided. Failure would result in them being forcibly teleported to the supply area, and they would have to face the false image trial all over again. This was a trial based on the ability granted to the champion Hillwillow by Botin, mother of the earth and goddess of craftsmanship. This ability allowed Hillwillow to learn any creation-related Skill he saw within a single day. This trial was another trial that could be cleared without the champion’s ability; it just required several challengers with high-Level creation-related Skills. * The trial of the 71st floor was farming. Challengers were required to take a large pot full of grain seeds, plant them and reap the harvest. Among the seeds, there were some that were weaker and would produce less grain. Challengers would have to use their knowledge, intuition and life-attribute magic to determine which seeds these were and find a way to encourage their growth. This was a trial based on the divine protection that the champion Zakkart received from Vida, the goddess of life and love. This divine protection granted Zakkart more acute senses and a greater affinity for the life attribute. This was the simplest trial of the trials since the 68th floor. It could be cleared by an expert in life-attribute magic or a master of time-attribute magic… As this was a Dungeon to find the successor to Zakkart, it was only common sense to include a member who was an expert in life-attribute magic. * the 72nd floor. This was the floor decorated with statues of those who seemed to be the fallen challengers from outside the Boundary Mountain Range. The enormous, beautifully-polished stone gate bore an inscription reading: “Those who have chosen worthless heroes and prayed to worthless gods, as a reward for reaching this place, burn into your memory the fate of your predecessors.” As the inscription said, there was a countless number of stone statues around the gate. And the gate and walls were decorated with statues consisting only of torsos, heads or limbs, as if sculpted into the wall surfaces. Every single statue had elaborate detail. If one examined the heads closely, they would see the earholes and the tongues and teeth inside the mouths. And above all, the faces twisted in fear and anguish made it difficult to believe that these were mere creative pieces. It was as if the dead had been petrified at the moment that life slipped from their bodies. “This is likely a stage created by Gufadgarn to break the wills of any mistaken followers of Alda who made it this far,” said Luciliano, observing and drawing sketches of the statues that looked as if they would cause mental illness in those who looked at them for too long. “But what has caused them to turn into stone? A Petrifying Demon Eye should only work on living creatures; is it a curse or earth-attribute magic? Or could it be that these are simply stone statues made to look exactly like the corpses?” he murmured to himself, sketching the statue of a person whose abdomen had been ruptured, exposing their internal organs. Even in Dungeons other than the Trial of Zakkart, each floor contained a large number of monsters. These monsters would begin killing each other if their numbers grew too large, but they often did not form strong feelings of hatred or a lingering attachment to life, so their souls quickly returned to the circle of transmigration. This was especially true for monsters created by Dungeons, as their minds were under the influence of their Dungeons. Thus, it wasn’t rare for challengers to not encounter a single spirit haunting a Dungeon unless there were other challengers up ahead or monsters had killed each other immediately before.The stone statues were countless in number, and as many of the dead challengers’ corpses were not intact, there was no way to know exactly how many there were. But it looked like there were about a thousand of them. Unlike monster spirits, it was easy for the spirits of people to form strong feelings of hatred and a lingering attachment to life, so there were cases where they haunted the world for hundreds of years without returning to the circle of transmigration. These were challengers who had lost their lives while they were trying to achieve their dreams, so their lingering attachment to life would certainly not be insignificant.The statues weren’t completely naked; the light clothing and underwear beneath their armor remained. Perhaps even Gufadgarn had disliked the idea of stripping them naked, or perhaps he had hesitated to put the challengers’ undergarments, which were not Magic Items, on display in the supply area. The possibility that he had found it too bothersome couldn’t be denied, either. curse petrifying Monsters *Insect monsters *Iron Golems *Mad Salamanders (spirits of flame) *Prism Stalkers (gas-like clouds of light) *Skeletons *Huge Gluttony Worms *Ugly Venom Frogs *Asher Big Moths *DoubleGenger or Mirror reflection Icefield Floor Yetis Poison Wendigo a superior race of Wendigo, which looked related to Yetis at first glance but were actually Demon-type monsters. Bosses Monsters Owner or Designer *Gufadgarn Category:Labyrinths Category:Dungeons